Abstract

Using the URL or DOI link below will
ensure access to this page indefinitely

Based on your IP address, your paper is being delivered by:

New York, USA

Processing request.

Illinois, USA

Processing request.

Brussels, Belgium

Processing request.

Seoul, Korea

Processing request.

California, USA

Processing request.

If you have any problems downloading this paper,please click on another Download Location above, or view our FAQFile name: SSRN-id2026604. ; Size: 360K

You will receive a perfect bound, 8.5 x 11 inch, black and white printed copy of this PDF document with a glossy color cover. Currently shipping to U.S. addresses only. Your order will ship within 3 business days. For more details, view our FAQ.

Quantity:Total Price = $9.99 plus shipping (U.S. Only)

If you have any problems with this purchase, please contact us for assistance by email: Support@SSRN.com or by phone: 877-SSRNHelp (877 777 6435) in the United States, or +1 585 442 8170 outside of the United States. We are open Monday through Friday between the hours of 8:30AM and 6:00PM, United States Eastern.

This is the text of a talk delivered to the Royal Society Discussion Meeting “Web Science: A New Frontier,” in September of 2010. It reflects on key questions about the way the Web works, and how an understanding of its past can help those theorizing about the future.

The original Web allowed users to display and send information from their individual computers, and organized the resources of the Internet with URLs, or uniform resource locators. In the 20 years since then, the Web has evolved. Content is available in some countries and not in others. Distribution platforms like the iOS App stores, where content is curated by third parties, have become common – a shift from the “anything goes” nature of the early Web. URL shorteners like Bit.ly have changed the way that content resolves – and introduced new points of failure in the chain of user to destination. The URL is no longer uniform.

At the same time that the links in the Web are becoming more fragile, projects like Google Books are making the Web more centralized and reliant on a small number of companies. DDOS attacks, security concerns and convenience have begun to push content under the umbrellas of large providers, making it easier to censor or modify with few users the wiser.

These new challenges require a return to the spirit of the early Web, exploiting the power of the Web’s users and its distributed nature to overcome the commercial and geopolitical forces at play. For example, website outages could be avoided by a system of mutual aid that allows for web users to preserve access to copies of websites they link to, even when the originals are down. The future of the Web rests in projects that preserve its spirit.

Date posted: February 6, 2012
; Last revised: October 31, 2012

Suggested Citation

Zittrain, Jonathan, Will the Web Break? (September 1, 2010). Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, Forthcoming; Harvard Public Law Working Paper No. 12-08. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1995059